News April 6 2007

Alfa launches Selespeed Brera and Spider at Geneva

Alfa has added Selespeed versions of the new Spider and Brera at the Geneva motor show, and their arrival in Australia later this year will complete the Selespeed picture for the Italian car maker.

“The arrival of these cars in Australia is highly significant for Alfa Romeo, given the bias of our market towards self-shifting gearboxes,” says David Stone, General Manager for Alfa Romeo in Australia. “They mean that we will have a self-shifting gearbox for every version of the new-generation Alfa Romeos, the 159, the 159 Sportwagon, the Brera and Spider, and, even more than that, they are all six speed state-of-the-art gearboxes, enhancing performance and fuel economy like no unit before them. This range-wide availability will transform our sales in Australia.”

This month sees the arrival of the 159 and 159 Sportwagon with the 1.9 JTD Turbo Diesel engine mated to the Q-Tronic six speed automatic gearbox. The same Q-Tronic unit is now available with the 2.4 JTD Turbo Diesel in 159 and Sportwagon, along with the 3.2 litre V6 JTS engine in 159, Sportwagon, Brera and Spider. The new six speed Selespeed debuts in the 159 and 159 Sportwagon before arriving in the Geneva-launched Spider and Brera in Australia in the third quarter of 2007, in each case matched to the 2.2 litre 136 kW JTS engine.

The new version Selespeed is claimed by Alfa to provide an extremely user-friendly robotised electro-hydraulic system for manual sequential and automatic gear changes that are easy and intuitive. In manual sequential mode, the driver changes up by ‘pushing’ the shift in the opposite direction to the direction of the car, and he reverses the action to change down. Alfa have based this functioning logic on typical 'sporty' gear changes where it is the inertia of the motion of the car and the driver that intuitively suggests how to use the gearbox. In automatic mode, the gearbox automatically selects the best ratio to engage, leaving the driver free to concentrate on the road. It is also possible to change gear using the ‘paddles’ on the steering wheel, which are standard equipment with the Selespeed transmission.

The Selespeed gearbox also has a Sport button that can be activated with manual or automatic operation. In the first case, Sport mode reduces gear change times by about 20 per cent by compressing the torque reduction and reinstatement stages. With automatic operation, engaging Sport mode raises the gear change points to higher engine speeds.

The Selespeed Brera and Spider models do 0 to 100 kmh in 8.6 and 8.8 seconds respectively, and both have a top speed of 222 kmh. Pricing and equipment specifications for the Selespeed version Brera and Spider will be announced when they go on sale in Australia during the third quarter of 2007.

(look out for our forthcoming test drive of the new Alfa Spider 2.2)

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